There is a palpable frustration surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers. Whether you’re a fan watching at home, a season ticket holder, the head coach, or an executive in the front office, the odds are that you are not happy with the way this season has progressed.

They have lost eight of their last 10 games, are 12 games under .500, and have lost so many games to injury to key players it would be laughable if it all wasn’t a little sad.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, though. In the offseason the Sixers were looking like a team on the rise after making a major trade for Andrew Bynum. Bynum was supposed to be their new franchise player and anchor their team on both sides of the ball.

“This is a move that should have worked,” Aron said. “But, unfortunately, he got an injury in September and it’s been compounded since, post-trade and we haven’t seen a day. The fans hopes were justifiably high that the Sixers had made a move, a bold move, that would catapult us back into the top teams in the NBA. It hasn’t worked.”

Bynum, of course, has had injury issues for much of his career — or at least since he became a full time player. The Sixers knew of these issues when they traded for Bynum, their doctors signed off on the deal with the expectation that he’d be ready to go at the start of the season. That hasn’t happened, though. Furthermore, every timeline for his return has been pushed back.

It is seemingly that moving back of his return that has frustrated everyone the most. More from Aron:

“We certainly thought he was going to play in August,” Aron said. “That’s why we made the trade. Even in early October, we thought he would play on opening night. Then there was a delay. Then there was [another] delay. Even when we announced that he was out indefinitely, inside the team we thought he would play in January or February. He himself, in February, said he would play in February. But here we are in March and the team is disappointed. Our fan base is disappointed. And that’s the story of the season.”

The question for the Sixers now becomes what to do with the mercurial center moving forward. It’s becoming more and more likely that Bynum doesn’t play and single minute this year and that will put the organization in an incredibly difficult position when deciding how to approach his pending free agency.

The Sixers have gone on record saying that re-signing Bynum is their “plan A”. However, what will that cost and how many years will they need to offer him to secure his services?

Considering the dearth of talent on the free agent market — outside of Chris Paul and Dwight Howard the market is devoid of any elite players besides Bynum — the odds are that Bynum will receive a max contract offer from some team in the off-season. Will that team be the Sixers?

If I were them, I’d float the idea of signing Bynum to a two year contract for the max with a team option for a third year. The max money would appease Bynum’s desire to be financially secure and the shorter length (with a team option) would give both sides some leverage down the line. If Bynum returns to full health and performed as he did before the injury, he’ll still be in his prime and eligible for another max deal when that contract expires. If he never recovers, the team can cut bait after two seasons. Seems like a win-win for both sides.

But, as Aron says, that’s a decision for the off-season. And a decidedly difficult one considering the uncertainty and the importance of it. When they do decide, you have to think that they will recall those thoughts they had this summer when they pulled the trigger in the first place.

The throwbacks started with Cleveland’s Larry Nance Jr. going quick-change to pay tribute to his father, the 1984 winner of the Dunk Contest.

Nance later had the best dunk of the night, but it wasn’t enough in the face of Utah’s Donovan Mitchell‘s strong and consistent night highlight by his throwback dunk — donning a Vince Carter Toronto dinosaur jersey and doing VC’s famed 360 dunk — which got Mitchell the 48 points he needed to hold-off Nance and win the contest. It was over.

“Growing up I was a big dunker,” Mitchell said. “I wasn’t really much of a basketball player. I just dunked and played defense, and I watched a lot of Vince’s videos. I’ve been seeing what he’s been doing all year at his age, which is incredible.

“So I figured, you know, at my size if I was able to get it, it would be a great dunk and a way to finish it, you know. And actually, funny story is I haven’t made that dunk in like half a year. I tried it in practice the past two days and tried it this morning, didn’t make it. Tried it last night, didn’t make it… But to be able to make it was why I was so excited.”

Earlier in the night, Mitchell had done another tribute worn a Darrell Griffith jersey — Utah’s Dr. Dunkenstien, who went to Louisville like Mitchell — for an off-the-side-of-the-backboard jumping over Kevin Hart dunk.

“You know, just knowing your history, I think, is the biggest thing,” Mitchell said of the throwbacks. “Just understanding where this game originated, I guess the OGs of the game, I guess you would call it. But just understanding. Even if it’s just dunking. Whether it’s dunking in the NBA in general, Darrell Griffith, we went to the same school in college. I know Darrell very well. Both got drafted by the Jazz, and he was an incredible player. To be able to pay homage to him meant a lot to me.”

For my money, Nance had the dunk of the night, his first in the Finals, a double off-the-backboard throwdown that you had to see on replay to get (it wasn’t as evident in the building what he had done until it was re-shown on the big screen).

It was a fun contest all night long.

Mitchell (the leader in the Rookie of the Year race) started it off brilliantly — he brought out a second backboard, and did a self-alley-oop off one to the other.

Larry Nance Jr. did his tribute to his father with his first dunk, and on his second one came from behind the backboard, going around the world, and threw it down hard. That got him into the Finals.

Oladipo missed all three of his dunks in the first round, which almost doomed his night. He, however, did a dunk wearing the Black Panther mask for his second dunk, which impressed.

Mitchell said he wanted to beat Dennis Smith Jr. because the Mavericks’ point guard had beaten him in dunk contests for years. Smith had one monster dunk, when he went between the legs and threw it down hard and got the full 50. It just wasn’t enough to get Smith to the Finals.

Nance started off the final round by bringing out his father again to throw an alley-oop to a windmill. Mitchell responded with a self-alley-oop to a windmill that was flat-out wicked. That got Mitchell a 50-46 lead after one round of the Finals.